Gingrich charging $50 for campaign-stop photos?

posted at 9:15 am on March 27, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

What can a candidate do to raise cash when donations begin to dry up? Seize every opportunity to merchandise the campaign, it seems. National Journal reports that Newt Gingrich has taken the standard grip-and-grin ritual after stump speeches and turned it into a revenue source, a report I’ve confirmed with the campaign:

In a sign that his campaign is in need of fresh funds, Newt Gingrich on Monday began charging $50 to have a photograph taken with him following a campaign speech to Republican groups here in the northernmost part of the state.

It was the first time that the former House speaker has charged those attending one of his public speaking events to pose for a photograph with him. Lately, a member of his campaign staff has been snapping photos of any interested attendee and later posting them online at the campaign’s website, newt.org.

On Monday night, those paying for a photograph were also told they could find their photos on Gingrich’s website, after they had filled out a form providing their credit card information.

I assume these sales still count as tax-deductible contributions in the same way that t-shirt sales do, unless someone tells me differently, so point-of-sale and other tax issues probably don’t apply. What does apply is a sense of desperation. Gingrich keeps insisting that he will go all the way to the convention, or at least not until Romney gets 1144 delegates, whichever comes first. However, Gingrich looks increasingly irrelevant to that question. Not only did he finish in third place in Louisiana, in the South where his strategy rests, he came away without a single delegate.

Let’s look forward at the schedule in April. We have three winner-take-all primaries on the 3rd coming up next, in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Washington DC. Gingrich isn’t expected to be competitive in any of these. Missouri has another non-binding caucus on the 21st, where Rick Santorum has been strong, and then we have New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware on the 24th. In which of these states will Gingrich even manage to win a delegate, let alone compete for the lead?

Newt Gingrich has been a valuable member of the Republican Party for many years. He gave this campaign his best effort, and helped focus other candidates on the message. It’s time for Gingrich to get off the campaign trail and look for other ways to contribute. This interregnum between Louisiana and the April 3rd primaries is a good time for Gingrich to make the transition.

Newt Gingrich has been a valuable member of the Republican Party for many years. He gave this campaign his best effort, and helped focus other candidates on the message. It’s time for Gingrich to get off the campaign trail and look for other ways to contribute.

That should be the message when the GOP leadership has “the talk” with both Gingrich and Santorum.

He was very eloquent and I was high-fiving his takedown of Obama’s “Trayvon could be my son” thing. Newt needs to work for someone. When we read of the candidate rehearsing for the debates, the guy behind the scenes playing Obama should be Newt.

Newt should have his own talk show on television or radio. He has the depth of knowledge of a broad array of topics needed to keep a show lively and interesting. He has a good speaking voice. He has an engaging personality. He can think on his feet.

I sent Newt some money a few months ago. Of course, I have received scores of requests from his campaign for additional money since then, but I have not responded.
I am not offended by him staying in the race if he can, perhaps because I cannot get enthused, yet, about any of the alternatives.
If Romney is the eventual winner I think that he will be stronger for having been through a tough primary campaign. It was nice to see him lay into Obama yesterday.

Newt….you can get even with Mitt some other way. Losing is hard to take but it’s time to head to the locker room.

Big Orange on March 27, 2012 at 9:33 AM

Indeed, and should a President Romney come to pass, Newt’s best angle would be to act as our watchdog anytime Pres. Romney appears to be adopting a Democrat proposal in toto and work to make that very difficult.

Newt should have his own talk show on television or radio. He has the depth of knowledge of a broad array of topics needed to keep a show lively and interesting. He has a good speaking voice. He has an engaging personality. He can think on his feet.

I’d pay $50 not to have to see his picture anymore. All I can think of when I see his face is Susan Boyle. Plus, when they show him waddling into a room, his gigantic gut arriving ten minutes before he does, I can’t believe people think this is presidential material.

Unlike the current WhiteHouse occupier, all of the Repub candidates have backgrounds, old mistakes, a change of mind on this or that, all of which can be used to weaken their message.
Ol’Newt has a lot of history and just couldn’t overcome some of it.

He would have made a terrific President. But, now it’s time to go home, play with the grandkids, go fishing. Salute!

Newt should have his own talk show on television or radio. He has the depth of knowledge of a broad array of topics needed to keep a show lively and interesting. He has a good speaking voice. He has an engaging personality. He can think on his feet.

Yes, someone should get on this right away.

Dextrous on March 27, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Actually, that’s a pretty good idea. I think he’d be a success at it.

He’d be outstanding! He makes dry topics interesting.
I’m still hoping for a Republican victory with Newt taking a significant role Secretary of Energy, but if not, how about a weekly TV gig, perhaps Sunday prime time on Fox?

He could go to CA, back the anti-gay marriage agenda and stick up for gun rights and get tons of local and national coverage there. If he did that in a couple of other big media markets, he would have to worry less about funding his own media and concentrate on his image-making.

He has to go where the media is at this point, not necessarily to primary States, just places that ensure he will get his mug and message across into primary States. One can lack a ground game that is solid and get lots of attention via an air game. It won’t get the nomination but would start to refocus his message and get free air time.

Ed, there’s an “interregnum” between the Louisiana primary and the April 3rd primaries? An interregnum is derived from Latin and is the period between the death of one king and the accession of the next and is also used to describe a period of discontinuity in a government.

And before anyone asks, yes, someone died and appointed me to the lexicon police :)

Newt Gingrich has been a valuable member of the Republican Party for many years. He gave this campaign his best effort, and helped focus other candidates on the message. It’s time for Gingrich to get off the campaign trail and look for other ways to contribute. This interregnum between Louisiana and the April 3rd primaries is a good time for Gingrich to make the transition.

Hello? The candidates themselves are perfectly capable of deciding when to quit.

Because with a total of only 50 delegates so far and practically 0 chance to win any more, he isn’t seen as anyone Romney or any of the other candidates are going to waste any resources campaigning against. Paul’s own campaigning does it for them.

Newt will soon be reaching the same point. Santorum will be getting there after next Tuesday. After next Tuesday the logical Santorum supporters will be gone leaving only the emotional supporters. It will be a situation, to paraphrase Batfink, of “Your logic can not harm me, my skull is like a shield of steel”.

Which is basically where Newt is today. They are hoping against hope of a brokered convention.

Now generally, I LIKE the idea of proportional allocation primaries and feel they all should be and that the convention really should “mean” something. And that it probably improves the party platform to have to take the best positions of some of the lesser candidates in exchange for their delegates. But in this case the alternative candidates; Paul, Gingrich, and Santorum, are just so bad that now I can see a situation where proportional allocation can do more harm than good.

Santorum just doesn’t have a viable position on anything that Romney doesn’t share. Same with Newt. They both have some pretty whacked positions on some things that are best left alone, but there aren’t any really good ideas out there. Paul DOES have some good DOMESTIC ideas and if I were Romney I would put Ron Paul in charge of the EPA after purging the department of ALL Clinton and Obama appointees and cutting its budget by 75 to 80 percent.

The talking heads, screed writers, and beltway politicians of the GOP establishment took it upon themselves to wage a negative campaign of monumental and unprecedented proportions against Newt, and now they want him to play nice and get out of the way.

I assume these sales still count as tax-deductible contributions in the same way that t-shirt sales do, unless someone tells me differently, so point-of-sale and other tax issues probably don’t apply.

Hmm, wouldn’t the amount over and above the cost of the photo be considered a campaign contribution? Not tax deductible, IIRC, losing even that incentive. If you can call it an incentive to pay that much for an 8 x 10 glossy of Newt.

I assume these sales still count as tax-deductible contributions in the same way that t-shirt sales do, unless someone tells me differently, so point-of-sale and other tax issues probably don’t apply.

I thought donations to campaigns in any form were not tax deductible. But as for the measly $50.00 a picture, he must be wistful for the good old days at Healthcare Transformations when he charging $5000 for the “Entrepreneur of the Year” award and dinner with Newt and other lucky “entrepreneurs”.

I will forever blame the LIAR-of-Liars, RINO Romney for LYING, LYING, LYING ALL Over Florida and Iowa before that, about Gingrich (see “What Really Happened to the Gingrich Ethics Case?” by Byron York, Townhall.com 2/6/2012). And BTW, the RepublicRAT establishment was and is COMPLICIT in those LIES!?! Now just how is an Independent like myself supposed to get behind a horrible candidate (AND COMPLICIT party) that I know is an out-and-out LIAR??? Nice goin’, STUPID Party!?! IF you succeed (and that’s a real big “if” considering the above), you will simply have replaced the Jackass Party LIAR-IN-Chief with the (R) version!?!

In which of these states will Gingrich even manage to win a delegate, let alone compete for the lead?

In ANY of the remaining states he has hardly any chance of winning a single delegate. I said this weeks back after the AL and MS primaries. He’s spent. His only reason for hanging the race, supposedly, is to try to steal some delegates from Mitt to try to keep him below 1144. Epic FAIL!